Self financing

[Bizzy]

Any one out there know the cost of financing a tower ticket and approach proc? Either with SERCO or NATS

[aluminium persuader]

Yeah - lots!

Suggest if you don't have the quals for NATS cadetship then join either org as an ATSA/ATCA or whatever else they call an assistant these days and get SERCo to sponsor your training (you may have to push for it a bit) or (when I worked for NATS (CAA in those days)) for each year you did as as ATSA they knocked an A-level off the requirements.
SERCo would almost certainly bond you, but it woul still be heaps cheaper in the long run.

Luck matey!

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Once more unto the breach, Dear Friends...

[Dan Dare]

Each course (aerodrome, approach, radar) will be about 3 months and leave you £15-20k out of pocket. There would be no guaruntee of passing, no refund if you don't, and no guaruntee of a job at the end. If you are lucky enough to find a job (more likely now that more people are leaving for other careers) then the pay is woefully low, especially relative to the initial investment.

Some airfields sponsor a small number of assistants to do the courses, but don't take a job purely for an off chance of sponsorship, take it because you want to be an assistant there.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

[Chilli Monster]

Bailbrook prices

ADC - £17K (Approx)
APP - £13,400
APR - £19,725

I paid for my own ADC - a big risk by itself - there are NO guarantees. Getting a job to get that first Cert of Competency is then the hard part. Without a proven track record it's an uphill struggle. Airports would (I feel) rather sponsor their own ATSA's as they are a known quantity. If you decide to self sponsor then best of luck - but it's not easy.

CM

[Crabo]

Bizzy,
Are you a qualifed military ATCO? If so, you could always try the 'assesment of prior competance' route. I have been advised that to do this you need to undertake some home study into MATS Part 1 and air law, take the exams and then do a reduced ADC course which is paid for yourself (around £8000?). Ideally, you need to get together with a qualified civil ATCO to give you a head start in civy ADC procedures. If you complete this phase, the rest of the course is paid for by NATS, albeit without a salary. I believe that most, if not all people that go down this route end up going terminal so I think that the rest of the training takes around 6 months. On completion - you are an ATCO3 (earning similar pay to a Flt Lt).

Civy ATCOs - sorry if any of the above is incorrect - please correct me if I am wrong.

Bright-Ling - you gave me some good advice on this subject recently, can you add anything to help?

[This message has been edited by Crabo (edited 06 April 2001).]

[Bizzy]

Thanks all, just off to purchase a lottery ticket now!!

[OLD_EGG_BOUND]

You would be better of spending your time and money learning to programme relational databases. Many programers in this field, well certainly the ones that I know, own their own helicopters so if you became succesfull in this field you could earn more than an ATCO and still have some contact with the aviation industry.

NB I think the freelance rate is around £60 per hour. Back to my SQL 7 manual then.

[Spoonbill]

Bizzy,
I think that unless you have significant previous experience, (ex mil'), and are able to prove yourself on the assesment for prior competence, neither of the existing training organisations will accept you as a self sponsered candidate.
Chilli will be able to confirm this as he's just enjoyed an extended holiday at Bailbrook. :)
There is another training organisation starting up, Shearwater Aviation Training, run by some ex - Bailbrook instructors, but I don't think they have CAA approval yet, (correct me if I'm wrong guys).
One avenue you could try is as suggested, attempt to get a job as an Atsa at a non NATS regional airport and offer to pay for part of the training costs. At least you'll have something to fall back on if it all goes tits up, and you wont be so financially embarrassed.
Best of luck anyway.

[Chilli Monster]

Spooney :)

And only another week and a half to go to the next one ;)

CM